Jenny Odell - How to do nothing | The Conference 2017

"Doing nothing is not a luxury, it’s a ground for meaningful thoughts."
Digital artist and collector Jenny Odell talks about how work life shifted from an 8 hour workday into an always on approach. In this opening keynote, visual artist Jenny Odell will explore the architecture, politics, and rewards of nothing, arguing that the cultivation of nothing has new salience in the age of everything.
She wants us to reclaim the public spaces such as parks and libraries for personal reflection and restoration. Jenny believes time and places for the practice and art of doing nothing are crucial to uncover underlying problems and to understand yourself. She regularly spends time in a nearby rose garden for observational activities such as bird watching and doing nothing to discover what unfolds from her inner journey and peace in mind.
www.theconference.se

[@jabeenkauser7045]

There is such a need for stillness. I think there is so much societal pressure to be 'busy' that in the process, we miss out on fully engaging with our environments. Even to take minutes to look out the window at the birds...

[@go_rocky1084]

She is soooooooo outstanding!

[@pinklove8422]

Although I was assigned this video by my college professor, I truly enjoyed the format of this ted-talk. I loved the pictures and her discourse about social media. It really is encouraging me to take a moment and reflect on my life outside of school and career aspirations.

[@thisisbob1001]

Amazing how hard it is to do nothing!

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

In particular when you are male - and your wife is watching you.

[@fairleyparson3458]

Wow. I've got the observational eros--as do my sisters! Love this validating moniker. Brilliant talk.

[@greg4629]

what a way to end it. i feel my temperature drop when i hear thunder. im sure the audience felt like they were suddenly outdoors

[@rickyrivera5489]

Love it.

[@gabriellatamney2660]

Fantastic.

[@camellia_black]

Way ahead of you

[@neilwalsh3977]

beautiful

[@thisisbob1001]

Good ideas.

[@fascher_]

I have no words

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

2:35 - this should be brilliant idea for Google - provide us a world map please! (If not already available) We want to see what man does! Good !and ridiculous. We act collectivly - and we see, get feedback, 'loop closed'. Very necessary - more than ever.

[@jerusalemsolemnity4973]

She's doing a lot, I'd be exhausted

[@thisisbob1001]

Keep trying but someone keeps sending me bills to pay 😠

[@herbertmasing]

:D

[@precariatulroman7048]

The members of the growing ''useless class'' should learn HOW TO DO NOTHING!

[@gregg5213]

Is it me or is a lot of 'art' these days just curation? Don't get me wrong, she has great taste and insight--but the same could be said for an extremely talented curator. Without craftsmanship, is it art? Does criticism now = art? To be more constructive and less negative, I will elaborate. If "everything is art" that is fine. Indeed, her website, featuring "art that is found but not made" is beautiful. Except that much of her art was made by other artists. Take her neo-surreal series for instance. www.jennyodell.com/neosurreal.html I love these pieces and actually thought she created them. On her site, there is no indication otherwise (no attributions to the actual artists, that I could find). So while she has great taste and is doing these works some justice by putting them in a new, exciting context, she is doing an injustice to the artists. The word "appropriation" is thrown around a lot these days, but this really is appropriation at its core. She seems like a nice person, and I think her work is intellectually stimulating--but curation as an art form is ethically questionable. Curators have to cite their sources. Artists as curators apparently don't.

[@testosteronic]

At the top of the series you link to it does say that the images are taken from BYTE magazine ads, there is no implication that she made the original images, and there is craft in taking out all of the elements of the ad that tells you it is one, i.e. the text. She has still put time and effort and work into those pieces, in a way that is transformative, rather than an idea from scratch (although everything everyone makes is piggybacking off of other ideas, including the original ads)

[@runcmd888]

The uptalking was so distracting I couldn’t listen beyond one minute.

[@mwilliams653]

I know what you mean, but I continued to listen anyway and found that what she says is really interesting and worth pondering in many directions.

[@ernstbg25]

Your loss. This is an exceptional lecture.

[@stephengarry6956]

Uptalking annoying, perhaps. But you might want to exercise you content muscles and relax your form requirements (i.e., raise your uptalking threshold) because what she has to say is really important and she does it well, despite the uptalking.

[@user-du3yq5sp3f]

میخاحم خاک نسوز درت کنم

[@testosteronic]

Hadn't noticed it til I read this comment :(

[@u263a3]

This talk says nothing